history2701fandomcom-20200214-history
Sumerian King List
'Brief Identification' This clay tablet discovered in Larsa, Iraq around the start of the third millennium BC. The Sumerian King List is a record of the kings that ruled Mesopotamia prior to the Great Flood, the very same that Christians attribute to Noah, as well as those who followed (Lopez 348.) The best-preserved copy is a clay prism purchased in Iraq shortly after World War I that currently resides in the Ashmolean Museum in England (Lopez 350.) This King List proved significant for the time as it is a cornerstone of the creation of writing, and blends mythical traits with Sumerian Kings (von Soden 1994, 47.) ' 'Technical Evaluation ' '''The Sumerian King Tablets were a technological innovation for the writing industry. Regarding the tools and material of their origination: "Initially, a reed or stick was used to draw pictographs and abstract signs into moistened clay (Ira, Flood Stories.)” These earliest recorded entries, drawn with a crude stick, in the 2nd millennium BC could prove difficult to decipher. Thus, “Over time, pictographic representation was replaced with wedge-shaped signs, formed by impressing the tip of a reed or wood stylus into the surface of a clay tablet (Ira, The Origins of Writing.)” This adoption of more precise writing tools formed the basis for cuneiform. It shows the advancement of Sumerian society in that they were searching and upgrading their technologies when capable. ' '''Local Historical Context The King List states that “eight legendary rulers reigned for a combined total of 241,200 years (Ira, Flood Stories.)” The staggering amount of time these rulers held power can be attributed to godly traits that were supposedly divinely granted to these kings. Local rulers took control of individual cities in Southern Mesopotamia following the collapse of the Ur III State at the end of the third millennium BC; “Throughout the early second millennium B.C., these local kings vied for power. Dynasties of rulers at Isin, Larsa, and then Babylon gained, in succession, control over large portions of southern Mesopotamia. These cities have given their names to modern chronological periods: the Isin-Larsa period (Knott 2000)” is our period of focus. ''' '''The Sumerian people are described as “a population group that spoke an agglutinative language related to no known linguistic group (Ira, The Origins of Writing.)” The agglutinative language is one where voice inflection is key to determining the context of a conversation. I believe this aligns with the state of their writing at the time, when crude sticks were used to etch early pictographs that could be misinterpreted. It is plausible that the misinterpretation emerged in the written form due to this lack of inflection. The writing would of course evolve. 'World-Historical Context' The introduction of cuneiform opened doors of communication that had never before been possible. “Today, about 6,000 proto-cuneiform tablets are now known from areas associated with the Uruk culture, while only a few earlier examples are extant. The most popular but not universally accepted theory identifies the Uruk tablets with the Sumerians (Ira, The Origins of Writing.)” The spread of cuneiform technology and knowledge beyond the Sumerians is seen here with the emergence of Uruk tablets later in the 4th Millenium. It can be assumed that the entirety of cuneiform emerged from Sumerian culture, primarily from these King Lists. The city of Uruk was later referred to as the first city in world history. It is said, “The site was dominated by large temple estates whose need for accounting and disbursing of revenues led to the recording of economic data on clay tablets (Ira, The Origins of Writing.)” In a World Historical Context this is vital as it shows that cuneiform evolved from simply reciting the leaders of Sumerian Society into more complex ideas of economics. ' 'Bibliography Knott, Elizabeth. “The Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian Periods (2004–1595 B.C.).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/isin/hd_isin.htm (February 2017) Raúl E. López, “The Antediluvian Patriarchs and the Sumerian King List.” CEN Technical (Journal 12 1998: 347-57.) Spar, Ira. “Flood Stories.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/flod/hd_flod.htm (April 2009) Spar, Ira. “The Origins of Writing.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wrtg/hd_wrtg.htm (October 2004) Soden, Wolfram von. The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East. Eerdmans, 1994.